School will close for Winter Break and will reopen on Monday, January 13, 2019.

n e w snews from the trunkThursday, December 20, 2018

Pool will be closed starting Sunday, December 23, 2018 for maintenance over the break and will reopen in January, 2019

CHRISTMAS CAROL AT THE US EMBASSY AND THE CHARGÉ D'AFFAIRES RESIDENCE

Steve AlexanderKAS Superintendent

Superintendent’s Message News From the Arabic Department

This semester in Arabic classes for first graders we covered

most of the letters of the alphabet, placing vowel signs on

words. We have also introduced the Arabic language

writing system and Arabic vowel sound system, in addition

to communication skills.

To meet the requirements of this course students must be able

to identify the letters of the alphabet, the shapes and sounds

of the letters, to write the letters at different positions in a

word, to place the vowel signs on words correctly and to

explain the major differences in the Arabic vowel sound

system.

Winter Break – I want to wish all in our commu-

nity a relaxing Winter Break. Our first semester

was very successful and was highlighted by

receiving re-accreditation from CIS / MSA.

Parent Seminars Second Semester – We have

planned the following Parent Seminars for the second semes-

ter and we encourage parents to attend these informative

sessions.

February 7 – Bringing the International Baccalaureate

Diploma Program to KAS – We are beginning the process

of becoming an IB DP school, using the IB DP curriculum for

grades 11 & 12 once we complete the authorization

process. Steve Alexander and Don Tingley will explain the

benefits and details of this program and we encourage all

parents to attend this seminar.

March 14 – What KAS Does to Handle Bullying at School –

Don Tingley and Nicole Stacey, our school counselors will

discuss how we handle bullying at school and what parents

can also do to help their children with this issue.

April 11 – SPACIT / New Staff at KAS for 2019-20 – Steve

Alexander will update parents on the status of our strategic

plan (SPACIT) and let parents know who the new staff mem-

bers will be for the 2019-20 school year.

Abdelrazig Ibrahim Arabic Language Teacher

Dear Parents and Students,

Students at Khartoum American School have worked so

hard this semester and now that the semester has come to

an end, Winter Break is finally here. For many of us, this is

both rewarding, exciting and, of course, a huge relief. All

of the hard work throughout the semester has paid off and

it is now time to treat ourselves for the next three weeks.

It’s essential that you give yourself the time you need to

recover from the stress of the semester and relax. It is also

very important that you keep yourself busy. Keeping busy

prevents you from feeling down and provides your life with

excitement.

Here are some suggestions for things to do over the Winter

Break:

• Catch up with old friends (and stay in touch with new

ones)

• Bake

• Exercise

• Catch up on your reading

• Spend quality time with family

• See a movie

• Volunteer

• Find a hobby: Whether this means trying out music, art,

crafts, knitting or writing

Have a relaxing and exciting Winter Break!

Happy Holidays!

Letter from the Middle & High School Principal

This semester, the sixth graders learned about geology and fossils.

Instead of just reading about them in the classroom, the sixth

graders discovered that there are fossils all around, even in our

own backyard!

Using the same techniques that professional archeologists use, our

very own KAS scientists uncovered a treasure trove of fossils. The

student scientists were challenged to dig carefully until they found

the fossilized remains, and they found all of them, including leg

bones, vertebrates, and even entire skulls. Then they excavated the

bones, using brushes to carefully remove the surrounding dirt,

before transporting them back for observations.

Back in the lab, our intrepid intellectuals-in-training recorded their

findings in their science journals, drawing sketches and guessing

what these animals used to be. By looking at the teeth, skull shape,

and sizes, the sixth grade was able to identify several types of

species.

I guess you could say these students really dig science!

Archeological Digs

Susan BoutrosMiddle & High School Principal

Michael JorgensenMS Science Teacher

Marc ScottHS Science Teacher

Not all assessments in school have to be paper and pencil tests.

Sometimes having to use what has been learned in order to make

something is an even better test of understanding than being able to

“do the math.” Grade 11 Physics and Grade 12 Advanced Physics

have been investigating two different aspects of momentum. While

the Physics class has been studying the tendency of an object

moving in a straight line to continue to move in a straight line,

Advanced Physics has been investigating the tendency of an object

that is rotating to resist changes to that rotation. Both of these

concepts are used in the auto industry. Knowing about the forces

involved in linear momentum and impulse helps engineers to design

crumple zones into the frames of cars, and airbags into the interior

spaces to help protect the occupants in the event of a crash. Having

a handle on rotational momentum and inertia aids in the design of

wheels and tires that require less of a car’s energy to turn them.

In Physics the task was for each student to design and construct a

device no bigger than a 30 cm cube that would protect a raw

chicken egg from as high a fall as possible. Some of the designs

By Hook Or By Crook is an expression we use to explain

achieving something by any means possible, either honestly or

otherwise. For its origin we need to know that a hook is a blunt

billhook and a crook is a curved shaft a shepherd uses to gather his

flock. In medieval feudal England a law was passed preventing the

cutting down of trees or lopping of branches in order to gather

firewood. But the law permitted the poor to gather dead wood from

forests and deemed anything they could collect with a blunt hook or

shepherd’s crook was allowable. The Bbodmin Register of 1525

states, ‘Dynmure Wood is open to the inhabitants of Bodmin … to

bear away on their backs a burden of lop, hook, crook and bag

wood.’

Minette van der BijlHigh School English Department

Saying of the Week

Physics is Phun!were elegantly simple, some more complex, and some just looked

strange, but the final deciding factor was whether it kept the egg

from breaking.

In Advanced Physics the design brief was to design a car powered

by a single rubber band that would go fast and travel in a straight

line. Again, design solutions varied. Some students worked on

perfecting cars propelled by winding the rubber band around the

drive axle. Others used the rubber band as a kind of sling-shot to

propel the car. In either case, it took some perseverance on the

students’ parts to build a car that would not fall apart (first rule of

racing – finish the race) and that was fast.

Students of both classes now have a feeling in their hands for what

these concepts of momentum are all about.